Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 08/99) - The Diavik diamond mine is coming along at a time when it is needed most, say mayors of three communities that stand to benefit from it.

Hay River Mayor Jack Rowe said the benefits of last week's environmental approval of the proposed mine extend beyond the Diavik project.

"It sends a message to industry that we're open for business, but with the overriding criteria that new development has to benefit the North," Rowe said.

Kugluktuk Mayor Joanne Taptuna is hoping Diavik follows through on commitments it made at an October Kitikmeot Leaders Summit in Cambridge Bay. Taptuna said Diavik vice-president Doug Willy committed to Kitikmeot representatives to help residents in their communities with training and employment.

She noted Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay residents proved to Willy they are capable learners when he was recruiting for Echo Bay's Lupin Mine.

"The guys who were working at Lupin, they weren't trained when they got there, but they showed if you give them a chance they will learn."

Taptuna said Kitikmeot residents are helping themselves, enroling in a pre-employment carpentry program that started earlier this month in hopes of better qualifying for jobs at the mine. The hamlet is also trying to arrange for delivery of a heavy equipment apprenticeship program.

Yellowknife Mayor Dave Lovell spared no superlatives in his reaction to the approval.

"It's a great, great, great, great day," said Yellowknife Mayor Dave Lovell the day the decision was announced. "It's the difference between a recession and a boom, right there on that one decision," he said.

Rowe concurred with Lovell.

"Without it, I think we would have seen a real substantive slowdown in the economy of the NWT."

If it proceeds, the project will help preserve existing commercial infrastructure, such as the rail link between Hay River and Fort Smith. Diavik will be shipping fuel and material up to Hay River by rail, where it will be loaded on trucks for transport to the mine.

Last week's approval allows Diavik to meet its target of beginning construction this winter using the ice road to the mine. The $1.3 billion mine is scheduled to go into production in 2002.

Contracts tendered by the company for the 2000 construction season are worth about $100 million, according to Diavik.

"This is a major milestone, for our investors to hear the Minister of the Environment recognizes this project is environmentally sound," said company spokesperson Tom Hoefer the day the decision was announced.

Rowe said diamond companies doing business in the North have set a standard for Northern participation other resource industries, such as oil and gas, would do well to follow.